Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Urbanus (Architectural firm)'

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2002.
Vita.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 200-206).
This dissertation examines the development of the fields of landscape architecture and planning during the career of John Charles Olmsted. It attributes to him much of what happened in that period to standardize landscape architecture and planning practice. After Frederick Law Olmsted's retirement in 1895, the Olmsted Firm, under John Charles Olmsted, pioneered and led the development of landscape architecture and planning, working at both the large scale of national practice and at the smaller scale of office practice. The Olmsted firm is well-recognized for contributions to the profession of landscape architecture and to the development of American cities, especially in the form of innovative and influential projects in cities and towns across the United States. With the burgeoning cities and suburbs across the United States and increased opportunities for work, Olmsted Brothers grew into the largest landscape architecture and planning firm in the country. In the office, the firm's attempts to manage an often unwieldy amount of production material led to the development of an office system that forms the basis of modern design practice. On the road, John Charles Olmsted expanded the firm's national practice and became the most sought-after expert called in to help plan cities and towns across the country.
by Amy S. Brown.
Ph.D.

This thesis is concerned with the particular way in which people perceive urban space around them. It is my position that, further to the requirements of making buildings and urban spaces that are functional and comfortable, architects have the responsibility to engage the users of their designs on deeper levels. This deeper response to one's urban environment is a characteristic that good architecture always has. Architecture that is invested with a strong sense of meaning, through the specificities of its experiential and formal qualities and with other associations it may possess (historical, cultural, etc.) plays an important role in shaping the everyday urban realities of people in the city. This document serves to present the theoretical research and outline the approach to design that I have followed, regarding my thesis design project. Both my theory of architecture and theory of technology papers have been included in this document in their entirety, as they are both frames through which I have approached the design process. Interspersed are additional sections of text and diagrammes that outline the specifics of the design project I have undertaken subsequent to (and resulting from) the initial theoretical research.

The purpose of this research was first to study the Wildland-Urban Interface and Wildland-Urban Intermix (WUI) fire problem, and then to design, develop and implement improved fire assessment and fire protection features for structures in the these interface fire-prone areas. The findings included that several areas of the world are prone to devastating fires that claim lives and destroy property, and their fire problems continue to exacerbate. None of these compare to the property loss experienced in Southern California due to its vast development in fire prone areas. It is because of the continuing huge property loss and frequency of major WUI fires that Southern California was selected as the concentration for research and the case studies used in this paper. However, the results of the research are applicable to other interface fire-prone areas in the world. The author is motivated by a need to dramatically improve our ability to effectively deal with what is no longer a fire “threat,” but the reality that people have chosen to live in an area of the world in which wildland fires are part of natural forest dynamics. To reduce the economic and social impacts of these inevitable fires, we need to understand the causes of fire damage, and establish methods to minimize damage when fires occur. This thesis proposes several fire protection strategies for increased fire resiliency and safety of individuals. Following a search of fire history and analysis, three related fire assessment matrixes were synthesized (see Chapter Five). The Fire Profile Index is the principal fire assessment matrix. It was developed empirically and applied to historical fire spreads for a sense of accuracy. The intended users of the Fire Profile Index are design professionals, public agencies charged with oversight for development in the WUI, insurance agencies, building and landscape contractors, homeowners, potential homeowners, residents and fire service professionals. From the Fire Profile Index two derivative special-use matrixes were established for use by diverse groups. The first of these matrixes, the Developers Guide, is intended for design professionals, public agencies, insurance agencies, and building and landscape contractors. The second matrix is the WUI Fire Assessment Guide, whose intended users are those concerned with development in high fire hazard areas, who should have a fundamental knowledge of fire behavior. This group includes fire agencies, developers, homeowners, potential homeowners and insurance companies. This thesis contributes to increased residential structure fire resistiveness and occupant fire safety in the WUI, by proposing site-specific fire assessment and corresponding design features in both structures and landscapes. Chapter Seven covers the development of noncombustible fire shields to divert airflow and diminish flames and embers blown towards structures. Wind tunnel modeling research was conducted at the Aerospace Program’s wind tunnel at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.

Since the end of the Cold War, the combined influence of audiovisual media, modern urban conflicts and asymmetric enemies has generated a new kind of military live training simulation to prepare soldiers for future combats. These novel hybrid exercise battlefields are situated in artificially constructed urban spaces and integrate real physical training with techniques and imagery inspired by the fields of cinema and media. This thesis critically examines this convergence of entertainment practices and images in military training and the resulting, potentially negative, impacts on the execution of warfare and perception of urban spaces and populations. The thesis begins by tracing the evolution of terrain representations in wargames – from black and white squares, painted landscape elements and actual maps, to virtual environments, miniature houses and real-scale architectures. The historical relationship between the film industry and military training is analysed in order to explore the emergence of cinematic components in simulated combat training landscapes that brought the flat world of wargames to its real third dimension. The mock urban training space is then investigated as a “meta-cinematic city” – a city created through cinematic tools, including set and sound design, which portrays a cinematic city (a city as represented through a filmic medium). This analysis focuses on how cinematic elements, such as creative geographies and architectural sequences, are created in order to train for the subversion of traditional conceptions of urban spaces and architectural elements in urban combats. Furthermore, the examination reveals how the sensory qualities of moving image technologies are employed to generate a multi-sensory “hyperrealism” and “hyperimmersion” to train physical and emotional reactions and engrain military responses to combat stimuli. The analysis furthermore excavates both the conscious and unconscious remediation of media imagery and practices in the creation of the artificial “human terrain”. The mise-en-scène of the enemy population is investigated in order to uncover how the simulation of “foreign” and “alien” identities is increasingly based on the media coverage of these population groups. The analysis critically considers how the resulting role-play reproduces self-perpetuating stereotypes that pre-shape the soldiers’ perception of populations. Lastly, the thesis explores how artificial media cycles are generated as part of the combat training to prepare soldiers’ self-representation and communication skills under unpredictable, straining circumstances and to effectively communicate the army’s message to the world. This section especially focuses on the growing military “weaponisation” of the media, which has now begun to market the military training itself as an entertainment attraction to worldwide audiences – thus closing the circle between entertainment and military practices and subsuming the population in the war preparation. With entertainment and marketing imagery, technologies and concepts now at the core of military preparation, stereotypes of population groups and urban spaces and a “de-realization”, “gamification” and “sanitisation” of warfare are increasingly carried over into real conflicts, thus affecting critical decisions as a result of entertainment-based conditioning. Furthermore, to ensure public support, the general population is turned into an indispensable part of military training through participatory video games, social media and training centre visits and consequently becomes increasingly complicit in the merging of entertainment and military practices and subject to the same remediated preconceptions.

Partant d'une considération sur le paysage configuré au quotidien par les pratiques individuelles et collectives qu'il accueille et qui lui donnent forme, ce travail de thèse en architecture s'intéresse à la transformation ordinaire des lieux et interroge les manières dont nous pouvons l'appréhender pour penser leur devenir. Comment prendre en compte la dynamique de l'ambiance pour penser la conception d'un lieu ? Cette recherche interroge dans ce sens la portée du film (comme médium, comme pratique et dans sa réception) dans ce qu'il permet de comprendre de la transformation ordinaire des lieux. Il s'agit ainsi de questionner les potentialités des images audiovisuelles quant à la perception, la représentation et la conception partagée d'espaces publics urbains. En quoi et comment le film peut-il permettre de saisir les états et transitions des relations entre espace et corps percevants autant que pratiquants ? Pour cela, un protocole méthodologique croisé, à l'écoute d'une hétérogénéité des usages du film dans la compréhension et la constitution du fait urbain, a donné lieu à la construction et à l'analyse de quatre corpus de travail : 1. Recueil et sélection de films existants ; 2. Observation et suivi d'une mission vidéo dans un cadre opérationnel ; 3. Réalisation d'un film de commande ; 4. Expérimentation pédagogique auprès d'étudiants en architecture. Ces quatre corpus considèrent à plusieurs égards la problématique de la fabrication de films : statut et enjeu du recours au film, engagement dans le terrain (dans l'espace, le temps et la relation à l'Autre) par la pratique filmique, postures filmiques et rapports au monde. Notre recherche soulève, dans un second temps, la question de la réception filmique. C'est ainsi à partir d'une expérience d'audio-vision collective que le film devient le support d'un dialogue entre différents interlocuteurs conviés à mettre en partage et en débat leurs expériences. La pluralité des registres mis au travail au cours de la réception des films et de leur discussion (à savoir le sensible, le perceptif, l'interprétatif, le critique et le créatif) devient le support à l'élaboration d'un commun. De ces considérations sur la portée du film émerge en toile de fond l'importance du sensible et de l'improvisation collective dans l'appréhension et la conception de l'espace public urbain
Starting from a consideration of the landscape, as it is configured daily by individual and collective practices which are supported by the landscape and from which the landscape is being shaped, this PhD thesis in architecture focuses on the ordinary transformation of places and questions the ways through which we can understand it in order to think out the becoming of these places. How can we take into account the dynamic of the ambiance in order to think about the design of a place? In that perspective, this research questions the scope of film (as a medium, as a practice and in its reception): what does filming allow us to understand of the ordinary transformation of places? This work investigates the potential of audiovisual images in terms of perception, representation and shared designing of urban public spaces. How can film facilitate the understanding of the states and transitions of the relationship between space and bodies – considering that bodies perceive and act at the same time? In order to study that question, a specific methodological protocol, open to heterogeneous uses of film for the understanding and the designing of cities, was worked out. It led us to the analysis of four frameworks: 1. Collecting and selecting existing films; 2. Observing a video project within the context of an urban study; 3. Filmmaking; 4. Experimenting film practice with architecture students. These four frameworks address the question of filmmaking in different ways: status and stakes of the use of film, involvement in fieldwork through film practice (involvement in space, in time and in relation with others), film postures and relations to the world. Secondly, our research raises the question of film reception. It is, then, from a collective experience of reception that film becomes the base of a dialogue between people who are invited to share and debate about their own experiences. The plurality of registers coming from the film reception and its discussion (what is sensible, perceptive, interpretive, critical and creative) becomes the base to work out a common design. From these considerations of the scope of film, it appears in the background that the sensible register and collective improvisations are of paramount importance in the understanding and designing of urban public spaces

Due to considerations for sustainable development and urban sprawl we have to address the growing concern of abandoned buildings and cities. Underutilised buildings and urban spaces are the development sites of the future. This dissertation investigates the problems of underutilised buildings and cities, and by doing so aims to contribute to a good urban environment, “the good city” according to Stern (2003: 21). As a further challenge, many of these underutilised buildings were designed with abrupt thresholds and inward orientation, instantly divorcing them from the public domain. Therefore not only is the re-use of an existing building explored, but is the extension of the public realm into the building also investigated. The project addresses this extension of the public realm through layering as a tool and a design generator. The layered tectonic is applied through spatial, componential, material and transitional layering. The building chosen for the dissertation is the old Pretoria Central Fire Station. The new proposed programme is a Centre for Architecture. Site information: Programme: Centre for Architecture: includes exhibition space, auditorium, conference facilities, offices, library, archives, bookshop and restaurant. Site description: Old Pretoria Central Fire Station, 1912 Client: Client body consisting of SACAP and voluntary associations within the architecture profession Users: Professionals and students in the Built Environment industry, tourists and the general public Site Location: Erven 913 + 914 Address: 449 Bosman Street, c/o Minnaar Street, Pretoria CBD, South Africa Between African Window and City Hall GPS coordinates: 25°45’12.99”S, 28°11’8.61”E
Dissertation (MArch(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2011.
Architecture
unrestricted

La sicurezza degli spazi architettonici in emergenza implica una corretta gestione del processo di evacuazione. L’attuale approccio alla progettazione è influenzato da determinismo e schematicità: si suppone che conformazione di spazi e facilities (sistemi di wayfinding) sia di per sè in grado di plasmare il comportamento umano. Il progettista spesso adotta metodi semplificati (da manuali e norme) che considerano l’evacuazione un evento fluidodinamico con scelte umane rigidamente codificate. La letteratura dimostra però come i rapporti uomo-ambiente rendano vane le soluzioni comunemente adottate. Inoltre, stessi problemi sono riscontrati a grande (spazi urbani) e piccola scale (singoli edifici). Lo studio propone un nuovo approccio: il behavioural design (BD) intende progettare spazio e facilities basandosi sul reale comportamento umano. Le fasi principali sono perciò comprensione del comportamento umano con prove sperimentali, sviluppo e validazione di simulatori di evacuazione; analisi del processo per individuarne le criticità; proposta di soluzioni e valutazione dell’impatto tramite simulatore o prove reali. La metodologia BD è applicata a 2 casi riguardanti scenari esistenti complessi. Cardine è minimizzare gli interventi grazie alla localizzazione dei punti critici del processo e alla progettazione di nuovi componenti edilizi. Il primo caso ha visto lo sviluppo di un modello per la simulazione dell’evacuazione post-sisma su scala urbana. Il modello può essere usato per stimare il rischio includendo il fattore umano, valutare l’efficacia di interventi su edifici ed asseto urbano, e di procedure di emergenza. Il secondo caso sviluppa nuovi sistemi di wayfinding in edifici storici (teatri). Essi sono progettati per interagire efficacemente con le persone, guidandole attraverso le corrette vie di fuga, e senza apportare sostanziali modifiche al layout architettonico. Il lavoro è stato svolto anche in coordinazione con il cluster TAV-progetto SHELL O.R.4.4.
Occupants' safety in architectural spaces during an emergency is essentially connected to the evacuation process. Current strategies are influenced by a schematic and deterministic approach: it is supposed that building layout and wayfinding systems can directly induce individuals’ behaviors. Interventions on buildings could be enough for reducing people risk, because occupants would surely behave in “the correct way” (e.g.: using right paths). This approach seems to exclude behavioral aspects: experiments demonstrate enormous differences between theoretical and real behaviors in evacuation. Same problems are noticed at both small (building) and wide (urban) scale. Hence, this study focuses on a behavioral point of view and defines a “behavioral design” (BD) approach for increasing people’s safety in architectural spaces. BD is aimed at adapting architectural spaces depending on human behaviors! Hence, method phases include: understanding behaviors in emergency through experiments/real world events; defining and validating evacuation simulation model; analyzing emergency processes through simulator; proposing design solutions based on retrieved critical behaviors and verifying their impact by simulator or drills. The BD method effectiveness is shown by 2 cases. Firstly, an earthquake pedestrians’ evacuation simulator is developed. The model is able to represent man-environment interferences in damaged scenarios and can be used for evaluating vulnerability-reduction interventions on buildings, urban planning and rescuers’ management strategies. The second case concerns wayfinding systems definition in building heritage (theater). Systems are defined so as to address correct evacuation path choices, by reducing overall risks with no architectural modifications. This issue is considerably significant in these buildings because of preservation principles and minimum intervention criterion. This work was developed in accordance with “TAV-progetto SHELL-O.R.4.4” activities.

This diploma thesis deals with urban study of revitalization of complex of former film studios on an area of approximately three kilometers south of the center of Zlín, in the town district which is called Kudlov. The complex has been constructing since the thirties of the last century, however nowadays it is no longer determined to its original function. In this thesis, the optimalization of current state, the completion of several building and the area expansion of the park on the West are designed. Great emphasis was given on the largest possible multi-functionality, in addition to the main function of living in apartment houses, the area is complemented by commerce, leasable manufacturing facility, an outdoor sport complex and the already mentioned park. The urban concept reflects the traditional urbanism of the city of Zlín, it means a periodical grid of structure and a unity of shapes and materials.

This thesis explores how a displayed image and architecture interact together. This manifesto is analogically explored using parts of the human body such as the eyeballs as a structural analysis for the buildings with a projection of the cornea, the pupil, the retina, the optic nerves and the brain. This analysis follows a sequential order of capturing light, transcribing light into image, and displaying such image onto a screen. Both, the image and architecture are created parallel to each other respectively when conceiving an architectural idea in order to develop the idea into a building and then perceiving the architecture from such building. These steps are a cinematic approach using a video camera to record an experience of movement through the journey of a metro ride. This video is one of the tools used to edit an urban tissue of downtown Washington, D.C. The project becomes a Center for the Art of Moving Images exposing vectors of movements through its architecture. The building is manifested in a three-dimensional design where the site provides a sunken plaza 60 ft below street level perceived as a new floor in the city. The underground metro station transitions to the street surface through the use of this plaza in a very harmonious way. The result is a visual depth parallel to the perspectives perceived in movies where you see beyond the surface of the screen and in this case, beyond the surface of the city.
Master of Architecture

The goal of diploma thesis is urbanism and architecture study of village central part, reconstruction of municipal house and new house of fire department and community center in Kridla. The village itself is located six kilometres far away from Nove Mesto na Morave in Bohemian-Moravian highlands. The design is not trying to enter local structures inappropriately. The major affort is to combine different functions and activities with quality of public space and respect of countryside area. One of the goals is also to provoke discussion about vision for the next 30 years among inhabitants of Kridla.

The perception that wildfires are completely preventable has caused many structures and communities to be built in locations that will inevitably experience an uncontrollable fire event, risking human lives and infrastructure. Modification of built environments into fire-adapted communities has been explored in this thesis, through multiple strategies. Central to this analysis is the idea that sustainable human developments could adopt a form of biomimicry and indigenous design informed by the adaptions of plants, animals, and native groups that endure and even thrive with regular cycles of fire. This possibility has been assessed through the scope of fire adaptation strategies available to architects, builders, and urban planners. Design decisions including the strategic placement of buildings in relation to topography, wind, vegetation type, and fuel loads has been considered. Additionally, other mechanisms for adaptation have been assessed, such as fire-retardant building materials, building form, landscaping, and the density of built form on the scale of single homes, and broader communities. The thesis identifies a typical building site, the adjacent community, the potential threats to landscape and buildings posed by wildfire, and then explores design approaches aimed at improving fire adaptability. These factors have been considered and assessed on a qualitative level and offer new recommendations for building within fire zones. These design ideas and principles can then be applied to a variety of landscapes wherein the wildfire is inevitable, thereby exploring how fire-adapted communities may be built to sustain wildfires through a myriad of methods within a range of regions.

The current state of the 4th ward is one of atrophy and gentrification. The existing housing stock, as well as existing demographic and community structures are being replaced block by block with a drastically different, homogeneous housing type and demographic. Considering its place in the city, this new housing stock is very understanding of the density necessary for the future of this area, but has no reference to the existing housing types or demographic. The desire to maintain and rebuild what is left of the 4th ward, and its community, is faced with the necessity of densification and diversification. And to do this, we have to resist the urge to replicate the aesthetic icons of the past, such as the shotgun house. Through analysis, we see that the housing types of the 4th ward, rather than being defined by stylistic choices, are actually defined by their form in relation to use and proximity, and on a larger scale, by their varied, incremental patterns of development. It is these quantitative aspects of the 4th ward, at the scale of the city lot & the urban block, that can be preserved and incorporated into the inevitable densification of the area.

This dissertation examines the as yet untethered practice of the convergence of film and architecture in public municipal spaces against the backdrop of the idea of the relocation of the moving picture. Since this is an interdisciplinary practice whose forms and operations are influenced by a host of dynamics, the initial film perspective is supplemented by related themes from the spheres of architecture, public municipal space, and the organisation of culture and the applied arts, including advertising. The wide range of subjects covered in this dissertation is given focus by narrowly localised research examining the situation in Prague from the 1990s until 2010. Along with the case study, the chapters devoted to the discursive field form a progress report on the situation as regards this particular media practice, the outputs of which are subject to a short half-life that considerably limits the possibility of archiving them. The structure of the case study is derived from a specific classificatory framework and is close to the "catalogue" format, determined by a series of questions - who participated on the convergence of film and architecture and where, when and how. Though a specific segment of time was monitored, it did not remain free of links to previous working methods, historical situations and...